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While we are just beginning the Tuscany Tour 4, many here are looking for reaffirmation and expansion of their artistic directions. Talking with several of the people in our group, art and nature in various forms be it inlaid precious stones or sculptural compositions, we are seeing great work of awe inspiring significance.

What have others been inspired by while on travels?

Share some of your experiences.

Marcia

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Up until my retirement, I had not been able to travel outside of the US. However as a youngster in a military family I had traveled and lived in several regions of the US. Later as a parent I wanted my children to have some of the same travel experiences as I had and so we camped often all up and down the east coast and as far as the Rockies to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. I have always been inspired by nature to draw and paint, and often to bring ideas into pots. When my wife and I started traveling internationally, I found much to draw from in my travels. I was amazed at seeing Italy with ruins on every hill side, to see the wooded hills of Mexico that all too often hid pyramids of ancient cultures, and the sites of China that are evidence of a very ancient and vibrant culture. I hope to travel more in the next years, taking the time to soak in ideas that can be used in piece of art, but at the same time become part of my knowledge and life experience.

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Last October we took a vacation in San Antonio, TX, part of our plan was to see the Missions, but the government had shut down and they were closed as a tourist attraction. We decided to get as close as we could, so we headed out. It was a Saturday afternoon and the first one was open, it turned out the Missions still had services, we toured the first one and then moved as quickly as we could to another. We fell in love with the crumbling exteriors of the Missions but capturing that aging charm in clay so far has been elusive. Denice

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Have not been international for many years but recently have been to the awe inspiring Australian desert around the very west of New South Wales then down through the German inspired vineyards to Adelaide in South Australia. Have been twice, once during drought and once after rain. Ignorantly thought everything west of Sydney's Blue Mountains would be brown and dusty.....how wrong!!

In drought the countryside all around the Broken Hill region blazes in orange, reds, yellow, purples, soft pink greys etc crowned by a crystal turquoise sky, after rain the desert really does explode with green scrub and a riot of desert flowers.......I was totally enthralled.......2 trips, 3000 photos, 5 sketch books and 8 smallish buckets of creekside clays for testing (couldn't carry anymore on the train). The endless expanse of the desert and sky, its misleading solitude and quietness etc is the same feeling as surveying the ocean but the red/orange/yellow opposite of the blue/green/white of the water.

The country side from Broken Hill heading southwest to Adelaide changes quite fast into the rolling, incredibly Irish green hills of the Barossa Valley, dotted throughout by old Australian Colonial and German/Swiss inspired architecture. The Barossa Valley and surrounding Adelaide hills were settled by German immigrants and their influence is seen everywhere.

Stays as such a milestone discovery in my mind because when travelling abroad I 'expect' to be awed and inspired but I had seriously underestimated the beauty in my own country. Now need to plan the retirement caravan trip around Australia and see everything else I underestimated!